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Knowledge Area

Genética

Sponsors

This work was supported by the 7th Research Framework Programme of the
European Union “Eurolegume (Enhancing of Legumes Growing in Europe
through Sustainable Cropping for Protein Supply for Food and Feed)” FP7–
613781. The funding body had no role in the experimental design, analysis
or results shown in the manuscript.

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Si

Keywords

Storage proteinsCircadian rhythmLHYELF3TOC1LegumineConvicilin

Abstract

Background
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important source of protein supply for animal and human nutrition. The major storage globulins VICILIN and LEGUMIN (LEG) are synthesized from several genes including LEGA, LEGB, LEGJ and CVC (CONVICILIN). The current hypothesis is that the plant circadian core clock genes are conserved in a wide array of species and that primary metabolism is to a large extent controlled by the plant circadian clock. Our aim was to investigate a possible link between gene expression of storage proteins and the circadian clock.
Results
We identified cowpea orthologues of the core clock genes VunLHY, VunTOC1, VunGI and VunELF3, the protein storage genes VunLEG, VunLEGJ, and VunCVC as well as nine candidate reference genes used in RT-PCR. ELONGATION FACTOR 1-A (ELF1A) resulted the most suitable reference gene. The clock genes VunELF3, VunGI, VunTOC1 and VunLHY showed a rhythmic expression profile in leaves with a typical evening/night and morning/midday phased ...